Hospitals
by filkcatwearingabell
Summary: Chat Noir didn't like hospitals. Hospitals were as much a place of suffering as they were places of healing. People went to hospital if their bones were broken, if they were infected or... if they had cancer.


**Disclaimer: I do not own Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir**

Chat Noir didn't like hospitals.

Primarily, his disdain stemmed from personal experiences; if not for him physically then emotionally. Hospitals were as much a place of suffering as they were places of healing. People went to hospital if their bones were broken, if they were infected or... if they had cancer.

Chat shook his head violently and refused to think of that woman's smile, or the way her green eyes always lit up when she saw him. He could think about that later when he had done his job.

But still, regardless of his personal tastes, since becoming Chat, hospitals hosted a whole slew of problems. With his heightened senses hospitals were almost enough to completely overload him; the overly-sterilised smells, the constant beeps of machines, the too bright lights, they all contributed to him not wanting to go near hospitals.

But that's where his current problem arose. As much as he didn't like hospitals he felt obliged to enter the one in front of him. Because there were some people who didn't get a choice.

It had started a week ago. There had been an akuma attack near the Necker-Enfants Malades Hospital. He and Ladybug had little issue dealing with it, but as they went to do their traditional fist-bump to celebrate their victory they were startled by a sudden outburst of cheering and clapping. Surprised, they had turned only to see more than half of the windows of the hospital opened, several children in each one cheering and waving at the two heroes.

They had waved back, called out thanks in regards to the children's support, but had to leave quickly due to their transformations going to wear off. He remembered being surprised by how disappointed Ladybug was that they had to leave.

Unsurprisingly, Alya, the most notorious Ladybug blogger in Paris, wasted little time getting to the hospital after them. Back when he was in his room he watched her video where she interviewed some of the children about what they'd seen. Generally it was just full of excited kids who couldn't believe that they'd been able to watch _the_ Ladybug and Chat Noir fight, but there was one exception.

His name was Luc. He was bed bound in Alya's video and hadn't actually been able to see the fight despite being in a room in a prime position to do so. On his pillow was a small, well-loved black cat toy. Even though he seemed to be in a fair amount of pain, he smiled brightly in front of the camera and spoke animatedly about Chat Noir and Ladybug and how cool he thought they were.

Adrien had scrolled down the page after the video and was nonplussed to see that Alya had made a post specifically about the little boy.

Apparently, despite only being eight, the boy had contracted cancer. Terminal. The doctors had told Alya that Luc probably only had a few weeks left. Which was she made a post about him; he had mentioned wanting to meet Chat Noir and Alya hoped that by posting his story on her blog he could maybe have his wish granted.

When they'd seen it, Plagg suggested that they went immediately. Adrien was actually perplexed about why the kwami had wanted to go so desperately; he agreed that they should definitely go, but he didn't quite understand why Plagg wanted to go so soon.

Still, they agreed they would go the following Saturday when he wasn't being pulled everywhere by his extracurricular activities. Which was why a week later he was stood in front of one of his least favourite types of institutions trying to get up the courage to go in. Theoretically he should have all the confidence he should need – he'd been transformed for more than half an hour and Chat was generally far more confident, or at least had less inhibitions, than his civilian form.

Taking a deep breath to help steel his nerves, Chat finally stepped into the hospital's foyer. The woman behind the desk seemed shocked to see him so he gave her a smile that was more confident than he felt.

"I'm here to see someone called Luc."

The woman's eyes widened in realisation (it was the first time he had really considered how large Alya's audience was) and she called someone to escort him to Luc's room. The man who was called took him up to the next floor. Although the man had told him it was only a short journey, it took them more than ten minutes because Chat kept greeting the children they passed on the way. Seeing their smiling faces reminded him of why he had come and helped him calm down.

Finally they reached Luc's room where the man escorting him asked him to wait outside for a moment. He complied, but tuned his heightened hearing into the conversation.

"Luc?" The man asked, "Can you take any visitors?"

Luc's voice was much quieter, but Chat could still hear him well enough. "But mama and papa said they wouldn't be here until later."

"No, this visitor isn't your parents. If you're not up to it I'm sure they would understand."

"It's fine, I don't mind." There was a brief shuffling of what Chat presumed was the blankets and then the man gestured him in.

The sight that greeted him was a small and frail boy sat up in a bed with several tubes attached to both him and nearby machines. He had black hat covering his head, two small cat ears attached to the top. The small cat toy from the video was on his blanket.

As Luc seemed to register who his visitor was his eyes widened greatly and his mouth dropped open. Chat grinned at him and waved.

"I heard you wanted to meet me."

Luc's cheer of happiness immediately negated every uneasy feeling Chat had about being in a hospital again.

Chat ended up staying by the boy's bedside for hours. He complimented his hat, showed off his staff ad told Luc all about some of the recent akuma attacks, laughing and jumping around the room as he illustrated small parts of each tale. They also spoke about Ladybug quite a bit (Luc helpfully suggested that Chat should just get a bit braver than he currently was and ask her out on a proper date which, all things considered, wasn't actually bad advice).

It was hard for Chat to think that the boy in front of him had so little time left. Sure, he didn't look completely healthy, but there was an undeniable spark of life in him that Chat admired.

They kept talking until about six o'clock, at which point Luc's parents arrived. They had been told that he had come and greeted him warmly and with grateful smiles. He hung around for ten more minutes whilst Luc's parents took pictures, but then felt he should leave Luc to spend time with his parents. He stood and, explaining that Ladybug would be expecting him soon, began to leave the room.

Luc's father followed him out of the room and Chat paused to talk with him.

"Thank you for visiting my son. He... It means a lot to all of us. Health wise his luck's never been great. When he found out there was a hero with bad luck saving Paris it really inspired him. Thank you for that."

Chat gave the man a sad smile. He presumed he was only in his early thirties, but the man looked considerably older because of all the stress on his family.

"I did nothing, really. Luc's great and I really enjoyed talking to him. I'm glad I got to meet him."

Luc's father smiled then gave him a quick nod goodbye before ducking back into the room.

Chat looked back at the door for a moment, reflecting on the boy behind it, then turned and headed towards the exit for the roof. It wasn't like he'd been lying, so why was there such an uncomfortable lump in his throat?

oO-0-Oo

Ladybug had just begun her nightly patrol when she received a call from Chat. She swore, if he was calling to flirt again...

But the face that greeted her had no flirtatious smile, or any smile at all in fact. His green eyes were downcast and seemed dulled compared to usual and the corner of his lips dropped. Even his fake cat ears seemed to have flattened against his hair.

"Chat?" Everything was so out of character for him that she couldn't help worrying.

"Do you think you could come to my location?" His voice sounded empty, lost even.

"I-I'll be right there, Chat."

She ended the call and checked his location on her map. Necker-Enfants Malades Hospital? But what could he...

And then she remembered the post on Alya's blog and found herself rushing to his location all the faster.

When she finally found him on the roof he didn't look much better than in their video call. His legs were pulled up to his chest and his arms wrapped tightly around them. She walked over to him and placed a gentle hand on his shoulder.

"Are you doing okay?"

As means of an answer, he suddenly lunged forward and trapped her in a hug. After fighting akumas for so long her body went tense under him, even though she knew he do her any harm.

"Why can't I use my powers to get rid of other's bad luck?" His voice was hoarser than she remembered, as if he'd been crying.

She didn't know how to reply to that and made do with stroking his hair gently.

"Please don't get sick."

The simplicity of his request took her aback but she recovered quickly and finally allowed herself to relax. She wrapped her arms around him and laid her cheek against his tense shoulder. She didn't often let him take advantage of her like this, but given his state she decided that just once it could be forgiven.

"I'll try not to, Kitty."

oO-0-Oo

 **I recently had the headcanon that both Adrien and Plagg lost someone to cancer - Adrien lost his mother and Plagg lost one of the previous Chats.**

 **Maybe one day I'll be able to write something that isn't so sad for this fandom...**


End file.
